The concept of cord reels is not new and, in fact, various unofficial and official specifications relating thereto are current--for example, Underwriter Laboratory specification UL 335. One common objection to prior devices which the present invention seeks to overcome is the fact that in the known prior devices, the wiring connecting the cord to the outlet at the reel was "open"--i.e. uninsulated--and effected in a conventional manner as by screwing bared pig-tails of the cord conductors to the exposed terminal posts of the outlet.
Presumably, this practice was tolerated because the described connections were effected within a housing in which they would be shielded against outside access.
However, the housing did not protect them against humidity or even rain water which was able to seep into the housing and so tended to limit the situations in which the devices could be safely used. Moreover, the flexing of the cord as it was being uncoiled from the recoiled on the reel tended to fatigue the pig-tails attaching the cords to the connectors thereby weakening and ultimately breaking these attachments.